Life

It’s a recurring theme in vampire lore… or any paranormal lore, really. Eventually the creature has been a monster for so long, that they’ve forgotten their humanity.

Time and tide wait for no man, and they wait even less for vampires and werewolves. The new vampires still have tinges of their personalities… they feel guilt over bloodshed, and struggle with who they’ve become. The elder vampires no longer bat an eye. What was once survival has become a game… or worse, apathy.

Congratulations people of the world… we’ve entered the era of apathy. Cold and calculating monsters behind our computer screens, we feel secure in our belief that there are no longer consequences for our actions or our words.

In the US especially you hear the cry of “freedom of speech”. True. Absolutely 100% true… we have the freedom of speech, not freedom of consequences. We saw this a few days ago, when in the middle of a national tragedy, the vice-president of CBS posted on social media that she wasn’t sorry for the victims because odds are (being a country music event) that they were Republicans anyway.

There was immediate backlash, and she was terminated by CBS. But in the midst of thousands of angry people, were several hundred voicing similar opinions, but with the caveat that she shouldn’t have said such a thing publicly.

Apparently, to “civilized people” it’s okay to say completely horrific things, so long as they’re in a private setting. The problem is, what’s in your heart will eventually come to light.

I’ve seen women suggesting that another woman should be raped, because they disagree with her policies. There’s not an appropriate reason for anyone to be raped ever. Period. I don’t give one single damn how you spin it, it’s never okay.

I’ve seen people expressing horror that lynchings ever occurred, and immediately follow it up with “the only people who should be lynched are Trump voters”. No. No, no, no. Lynching is either okay, or it’s not. There’s no situation where you can justify lynching someone.

Do you know how many times a week I see someone write “f*&! off and die”? or “Just go kill yourself!” We mourn suicide when it’s an actor or singer we loved, but wield these ugly words because some stranger pissed us off in a comment thread.

The problem isn’t Trump.

The problem isn’t Obama.

The problem isn’t Hillary, or Romney, or Cruz, or McCain, or Russia, or GMOs, or gluten intolerance.

The problem, is that we’ve forgotten how to be humans. We’ve forgotten how to look out for our fellow man. We’ve forgotten that on the other side of that cold glass screen, is another living, breathing human being, who may be incredibly wounded by your flippant remark. Tomorrow, you won’t remember that you said they should be raped or killed. And maybe you won’t lose your job over it, because maybe your anonymity will protect you.

But it doesn’t protect your heart. It doesn’t protect their heart. It doesn’t fix the world your kids are growing up in. And it won’t make you a human again.